Fuel briquette



Feb.v 18, 1930. P. E. wELToN FUEL BRIQUETTE Filed Nov. 4, 1926 v lwuzntoz *PWR www-:AM

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Patented Feb. 18, 1930 PATENT OFFICE `PARK WELTON, or oUYAHoGA FAnLs, onIo FUEL BRIQUETTE .f

.Application filed November 4, 1926. Serial No. 146,272.

v This invention is concerned with fuel bri-v quettes and has'for its general object, the provision of a briquette structure which, when v subjected toheat, will tend to increase its ex- 45 posed area to kindling action of fire.

j SKA rfurther object of my invention is the Y provisionfof a particular briquette structure directed to the facilitating of rapid kindling ,and conducive to the maintaining of an eiicient combustion when placed in the fire box and of-a shape which rwill tend to preserve ythe ,briquette structure during the shoveling or handling and shipping of the briquette.

Other objects of my invention will hereinafter be set forth in the following description which refers to the' accompanying drawings, illustrating a preferredy form thereof. The essential characteristics are summarized in the claims. In the drawings, Fig. lis `a perspective view of a briquette embodying features of my invention; Fig. 2 is al fragmentary detail Athereof and Fig. kv3 is a cross sectional view taken substantially alongV the line .3 3 of Fig. l. e It has been the practice heretofore to form fuel briquettesby utilizing waste Toy-products Y' of-vmany industries, such as sawdust, wood chipscoke, breeze etc. but the modern development of "the art has been directed tothe reclamation of coal culms, which when properly treated Vwith a combustible binder, can be economically formed into commercially practical fuel briquettes. My present inventionfis concerned primarily with the physical structure ofl briquettes rformed out-of coal culm and constitutes an improvement on .the yform ofbriquette.y I have disclosed in my Patent 1,572,629, issued February 9, 1926on a material comprising the briquette however, may be any economically suitable material which can be treated in a practical. manner with a binder to cause the material to hold its shape when extruded by a suitable apparatus.

A The ,shape of the briquette as wellas its 'structural characteristics has a direct bear- .ingupon the efficiency with which the'briquette can be handled and eventually burned.

Vmethod of making fuel briquettes. VThe For example, a cylindrically formed briquette of a granular structure has advantages over other forms of briquettes in that when the briquette is being handled, usually with a shovel, the shoveling action does not 55 produce undue crumbling of the briquette even though it may be granular and when the cylindrical briquette is placed in the firebox, there is no tendency to pack and interfere with proper draft for only line or point contacts are present between the briquettes when in the irebox; and further if the cylindrical form is also hollow, that is, of a tubular shape, additional gas escaping surfaces are provided whereby volatile matter not only escapes from the briquette around the cylindrical surface thereof, but escapes into the interior and burns at the ends of the briquette and if these ends are agged or irregular and of an open porous structure relative o to the exterior surface of the briquette a more ready kindling of the briquette takes place at the ends thereof. To increase the areaof the briquette which is exposed to flames, I form the briquette in such manner that there will be present in its wall structure definite planes of cleavage whereby when the briquette is subjected to the heat, the briquette wall will have a tendency to part along these cleavage lines and thus provide an increased '80 area exposed to flame and heat and this affords 'a more ready escape of the volatile matter from the body of the briquette. This briquette structure may be obtained by forming n a cylindrically shaped briquet-te as shown in 8 Fig. l, which will have a cleavage plane, preferably spiral in form, as indicated at 5 and 6 which is defined by juxtaposed convolu- Vtions of the briquetted material, which when being compressed preferably by an extruding process, will cause convolutions of the material varying in density in the briquette body to produce these planes of cleavage. These planes of cleavage do not interfere i, with the bonding of oneconvolution of the 9o briquetted material to an adjacent convolution whereby when the briquette is manufactured and up to the time it reaches the lire box, it is tubular in form with a uniformv outer cylindrical wall surface.' The briwo quette when broken will have the jagged ends as represented in Figs. 1 and 2 if formed of the materials setforth in the following paragraph and these broken jagged ends facilitate lthe kindling of the briquette.

Obviously the article herein shown and described may be formed by various methods. An example of an apparatus. by which the article maybe formed is foundin my prior Patent, No. 1,652,189, issued December 13th, 1927. In this patent there is shown a tapered extruding worm operating within the confines of a cylindrical die. The threaded portions of the worm substantially lill the die, and therefore, assuming that Ythe material urged forwardly into the die by the worml is prevented from revolving, the material fed past the end of the worm Will be in the form of a strand. Now, by reason of the fact that the material is left packed and fairly smoothr where the extruding faces of the threadsl engage the material, a distinct seam will be formed between adjacent convolutions of the spiral strand. Subsequent confinement of the tubular body'so formed is just enough to bring one convolution of the strand tightly against another, but there is not enough pressure brought into play to cause the material of the adjacent strands to commingle, the pressure being simply enough to cause the strands to stick together. Prior to the VVelton machine above referred to, eXtruding worms` and cylindricaldies of the same general character had been used. One difference lbetween j my patented structure and vprior apparatus, and which I believe accounts for the peculiar result herein set forth and claimed, is `that at the end of the worm the threadsare reduced in pitch, that is to say, at the very end of the worm the threads are closer ton whereinthe surfaces adjacent each other are smoothed, hardened, or otherwiseftreated in such manner that there is a distinct seam at these surfaces in the finished article.

The preferred material. for forming ,y my

briquette vmay comprise anthracite .culrn v properly graded and screened whereby when miXedwith a suitable powdered binder, a briquette having a granular porous structure maybe produced. A sulphite binder such as a cellulous Vsulphite by-produet incident to the manufacture of sulphite paper pulp maybe mixed with the dried culm in pulverized form. vA water-proong-material Y in. :thefofm etA ehreesed Walsum. meer@ f vif-ax or asphaltumvmay be incorporatedin themiX. rIhe batch when properly mois-Y tened with water can then be formed into briquettes by the -application of pressure thereto. L

In Fig. 3, I rshow in cross section,'the wall structure of the tubular briquette .shown in Fig.V 1 and yif desired an interior spirally curved effect', as 'shown at 7 ,may ybeprodueed, which groove is coincident with the planes ofthe spiral lconvolutions 'of briquetted material which form the cylinder shown :in Fig. 1. This groove has the tendency to more clearly define the cleavage planes *between v the eonvolutions of compressed granular material.V

Iam aware that'efforts have been made in fthe past to produce a laminated fuel, comprising *laminated layers of treatedculm which willv tend to separate inthe fire and thus expose a greater combustion area, 'but' I believe I am thev firstto disclose a tubularly formed briquette structure which has Vall of` the advantages ofthe more expensive vlaminated fuel referred to but which is obtained moreeconomically'by forming definite planes Y of cleavage inthe ywalls ofthe tube which planes do not extend longitudinally'of vthe tubular briquette structure but transversely. It is to be understood that materials other lthan those herein set forth may comprise the body of the briquette and which may betreated to producetheb'riquette structure I claim herein.

I claim: n Y Y 1. A fuel briquet'te, tubular in'sh'ape and having va lspiral `cleavage extending throughontlits wall. f

'2. A cylindrical briquette.comprisingspirally formed yconvolutions of briquetted material.

3. A tubular laminated Vbriopuette, builtup of laminations of briquetted materialythe lamin atedy surfaces extendingtransverse'ly of the briquette structure.

4. A fuelfbriquette, granular in structure and tubular vin shape and having a spiral cleavage extending throughout the granular VVstructurethereof. Kj-

A vcylindrical briquette, comprising spiy rally formedy convolutions of 'bonded material granular in structure and tubular form. l j v, j

' Intestimony whereof, I hereunto aliix my signature. f'

PARK n. wnnron f 

